Find registration information behind any German domain name

Frequently asked questions

General Questions

A combination of letters and numbers that locates an entity or an individual on the Internet. For example, the domain name www.eurodns.com locates an Internet address for "eurodns.com" at the Internet Protocol address 80.92.65.10 and a specific host server named "www".

A domain name usually consists of three parts: the "top-level" domain - usually called extension or "TLD"- that can be for example geographic (country code TLD = ccTLD, for example .de for Germany) or generic (general TLD = gTLD, for example .com for commercial entities). the second level domain "eurodns" in our example, identifies the organization, site or individual; the third level which identifies a particular host server at the Internet Point. In our example, "www" is the name of the server that handles Internet requests. (Another server could have been called "www2".)

Based on an Internet standard, a Whois system is a unified database regrouping informations on a domain name and its holder in a given TLD (The name is based on the question: "who is" the holder of the domain?)

Whois.de is a service that performs multiple queries on a number of "Whois databases" for various TLDs in one go so that you can find out whether a given domain name is available for Registration. In the alternative, the service will display all the available information on the domain name, the web site it goes to and its holder.

You can perform a query on whois.de to see whether the domain you would like to register is available.

If the domain name is available, you can register it directly with EuroDNS. If the domain name you want to get is already registered, you might be able to buy it through the Sedo links that can, from time to time, be displayed in your search result. Finally, the details provided by Whois.de may also be helpful to contact the current holder of the domain name you are willing to acquire.

Registry, Registrar and Registrant

A Registry is the entity in charge of mainting the single authoritative database of domain names registered in a particular extensions. For instance, DENIC is the entity in charge of all .de domain names and VeriSign Global Registry is the organization that controls all .com domain names.

A Registrar is a technical intermediary between the Registry and the Registrant. It is the company or organization accredited by one or several Registries to provide end user with domain registration services and take care the technical requirements in order to add one or more particular domain names - as wished by the Registrant - in the Registry database.

A registrant is the individual or organization that registers one or more specific domain name(s). This individual or organization holds the right to use that very domain name for a specified period of time.

WHOIS.DE Functionalities

Whois.de has no control over the information that the Registry chooses to display in the whois database. However the data can be changed by contacting either a Registrar or the Registry. If your request is successful, new data will be displayed on Whois.de in less than 24 hours.

If you believe the contact information for a domain shown in the whois record is not accurate, you must contact the registrar of the domain or alternatively create a Whois Data Problem Report at the following address: http://wdprs.internic.net/

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) whois policy imposes to every gTLDs (.com, .net...) domain holder to maintain accurate contact information. Moreover many ccTLD Registries (.de, .ch, .it, ...) impose to domain name holders to maintain up-to-date details. You can therefore contact the Registry in charge of the extension under which the domain name having inaccurate details is registered.

Whois.de system displays the expiration date as published in the applicable Whois database. Most Registrars provide multiple years registration albeit a few registries only offer single year registration. Therefore, your domain name may be registered for a longer period than the one appointed in the Whois Database. Please verify the registration period with your Registrar.

On the other hand, some domain names may have a renewed date despite you elected not to lengthen your registration. In most of the case, your domain name has not been renewed but put in quarantine. Please verify your domain name status.

If the whois information for a given domain name of yours is not displaying your contact info despite you having registered it, this does not necessarily mean that your domain name has been stolen.

Indeed some registrars such as EuroDNS allow their customers - under specific conditions - the ability to use their proxy service in order to be able to register domain names under certain restricted extension that require to hold a local presence. In such cases, the Proxy details will appear as the holder of the domain name in the whois database. Under other circumstances your domain name might have been registered by a third party, following its expiration. If you forgot to renew your domain name before its expiration date - that you can check using whois.de - your domain may become available for registration by a third-party under "the first come, first served" principle. The then holder of your expired domain name may be willing to sell it. Therefore we encourage you to operate a query on your domain name through our search tool to see if this domain name is for sale on Sedo's auction platform.

Should you notice that a domain name registration is infringing your rights, we recommend you to contact the domain name holder of this domain name through the contact details available in the whois database.

Additionally we also advise you to contact our sister company specialized in domain name recovery reachable at http://domainrecovery.com.